Gary Vaynerchuk is about to get HUGE. Right now he is just big but he is about to go through the iSphere. But first the Cliffnotes on Crush It.

Gary migrated to the US with his parents in 1978 and showed early promise as an entrepreneur with franchised lemonade stands and then a thriving baseball trading enterprise. He entered his father’s business first part time while at college and then full-time on completion.

He was introduced to the internet in 1995 and could see the potential, but as he states so well in the interview with Scobelizer below, it wasn’t until video started to become popular that he finally found a medium which he could use to communicate his message.

Vaynerchuk is a visionary with his finger on the pulse of trends, all sorts of them from teenage tattoos to the lack of understanding of wines. On the basis of practice what you know, he spruked about wines, but it wasn’t in the normal high brow offensive manner that had been done before. He spoke to everyone as if they were a customer in his shop,

but he did so through video whcih spread across the web.

He has only a few rules, the first three are Love your Family, Work superhard, Live your passion. And the best marketing strategy ever – care. Sounds simple? Gary demonstrates it by telling a story of a delivery through the snow to an unhappy customer. It is not easy to care and be passionate every day unless you really really love something. Gary says if you can find what that is you are most of the way there. Passion will leak through all that you do and guarantee your success if you use the tools available to you.

Legacy is greater than currency. To explain this, if you’re happy for your grandchildren to find out how you made your living and all the details that went into every transaction and you can sleep at night, then you are doing the right thing. If not, then you need to re-examine your motives and reunite with your passion.

Vaynerchuk argues that any business that ignores the social networking phenomenon of the internet will be left behind – period. Twitter and Facebook are his favourite modes but by no means the only platforms you should use to get your message across to your customers or potential customers. As he states these platforms are “word of mouth on steroids”. Your success will depend upon how you use these tools to get your results. Have a clearly defined plan before you begin. Remember everything is out there so be careful what you leave behind for others to find.

A note from me here, I’ve been on twitter since November of its first year, using another avatar than the one I have now because I decided to brand all of my social networking across the web. I’ve seen twitter particularly go through many metamorphises and will continue to do so. Adapt or perish is the catch cry to adhere to.

Vaynerchuk argues that branding is the number one thing that every single person should begin to visualise for themselves in the social networking sphere. You are the brand, even if you just play farmville and everything else on Facebook, that is a type of brand that you are presenting yourself as. Businesses need to formulate a plan to boost their brand online through all networks and interactions. Feedback is instant and potentially lethal to your business if not handled correctly. Gary foresees many businesses failing in this regard and gives a few case studies on how to and how not to handle certain situations in the social networking context.

Like many internet marketers, Gary recommends producing great content, staying true to yourself, and staying connected with your audience/customers. Know yourself and your limitations and don’t take yourself into a field for the money, you’ll get tired really quickly and you need stamina if you are to follow in Gary’s footsteps.

Is it for everyone? Yes and no. Is it possible to succeed on a perceived overcrowded internet? Yes and no. Will it happen overnight or in three weeks, a month? Uh No. Everyone has access to the same tools. How you use them to make yourself the cream that rises to the top is up to you and how much you are prepared to put in. But one thing Gary guarantees, if you put in the hours, you will get results – guaranteed.

Gary finishes the book with some great business ideas that he says he just hasn’t got time for. One of them was book reviews so I hope not too many people read that far )

Gary is sincere and generous and if you’ve seen any of his videos, you’ll hear his voice loud and clear throughout the text.

This book is filled with precious tidbits of gold and I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about using social media, already using social media but not getting the results they want, or using social media and think that they are getting results. You will be surprised on the leverage that is available to you.

A side note here, I was cheeky enough to ask Gary Vaynerchuk for a review copy for this site and he was gracious enough to supply it, solidfying his ethos that no customer is too small, no deed unworthy of him, and nothing too much trouble. There are no affiliate links associated with this article as I’ve already been given pure gold in my copy of the book. Thanks so much Gary.

Below is one of the best intereviews I’ve seen between Gary and Scobelizer. I’ve tried to transcribe it, but the audio is a bit difficult for that, but quite OK to view. It’s lengthy but worh every single second. Gary gives some invaluable advice and tips and it is a great introduction to Crush It.

Just released Gary Vaynerchuk explains Social Media = Business

The second half gives a brief yet thorough overview and more detailed information about each of the option with contributions from Jim Cochrum and Tim Knox and other heavy weights.

Although an overview and really targetted at the beginning internet marketer or business owner, I found resources in here that I have not found ANYWHERE else and I am a internet marketing veteran in terms of reading everything.

A few great nuggets and another leave on your shelf reference book just for all the great links.

Joe Vitale gives a really great chapter on hypnotic writing and marketing towards the end of the book with comments from Mike Mograbi. I got hooked on this (I think they hypnotised me) and am starting the broader work on this “Hypnotic Writing” by Joe Vitale next. Stay tuned.

This is one of those books that you need to add to your collection like a dictionary.  There is way too much valuable information for any cliff notes to be reasonable here.

This book shows you how to get hotel guests to recycle, how to get people to volunteer and how to leave a larger tip, just to name a few.

Whether you’re a marketer or a worker, this book is invaluable in increasing everyone’s income just by changing one word in some circumstances.

Add it to your collection or be persuaded by another. Yes! I want to Persuade

Firstly I think Joel Comm has totally missed his calling and should just concentrate on writing.  He has a real gift and this book is an excellent story, intermingling facts with just enough story to create a rich text.

There is so much information jam packed within the stories of how famous internet marketers like John Reese, Rich Schefren, Rosalind Gardiner, Yanik Silver, Jay Abrahams and hundreds more, all got started and what they are most remembered for.

All of the marketer’s personal stories are overlayed upon the history of how the internet even came to be and what it actually began as and what it has evolved into, to date.

To date being the operative phrase and conclusion of the book as Joel Comm tries to look into the future to see where the next big thing will be.

He finishes off by profiling a story of an Iranian girl, Ladan Lashkari, borrowed from Eric Holmlund’s blog. The cliff note is she doesn’t have one advantage that we do but is still managing to earn $US6,300 a month.

The story from all of these marketers is that they laser focused on one thing or one niche or one topic that they knew and took it from there.  What they learned from their first experiences they took to their second and so on.

So even though what I know is not savory, I also know there’s a huge and growing market for it so I’m taking all the tips I learned and going forward with it.

History is important.  To know where something has come from, you can judge where it may lead.  Joel Comm has given an excellent, and relatively concise history of who, what, when and where and wrapped it in entertaining ditties about the personal struggles of the big guys.

Fantastic and highly recommended read for anyone, but EVERYONE who is even THINKING of starting an online business.

Joel, can we please have more books?  You are a fantastic writer. Well done mate.

Kath

Joel has written a rich yet !brief! history of the internet marketing world and it’s full of so many tidbits of information you just have to read every word and then re-read it. I can’t believe the amount of information crammed in here so far.

The most important thing for me that is standing out is still how young the internet really is.  We have taken the changes for granted and become so accustomed to spamming and surrendering our email address (not any more getting harder to get) that we have lost sight of the fact that some of the top marketers, only began to make their full stride from 2002 and 2004.  So I have to question at this point, have they even reached their full stride yet?

I would have to say, no way.  As Joel points out briefly so far, although the internet has taken over our lives to some extent and the way we consume and obtain media has changed forever, there are still many changes afoot that we haven’t even dreamt are possible yet.

At the half way point, I’m feeling really optimistic about still being able to carve out a living from the internet in some form, although taken note that some of the strategies used to date may already be outdated as users become jaded.  However, from my own experience I can tell you that our children approach the internet in an entirely different way and it will be this market where the most opportunity will arise.

I’m deep into the covers of this book today to finish and will give my final thoughts and hopefully Joel will shed some light on the approaching generation and how best to market them.

Stay tuned.  Get your copy here:Click Here to Order